MERP Review

After finishing a short adventure which took several years to complete due to scheduling problems, I decided to finally write a review of MERP (Middle-Earth Role Playing) game full of my personal preferences, prejudices and controversial hot takes.

My experience

It was my first time being a DM, or Game Master will be a proper term, as it is not D&D, so my players and I often felt like in this sketch, and starting in hard mode with a crunchy old-school game was not a good decision...  

Crunchiness

MERP is considered a crunchy game, and a character sheet really awed my players at first. But is it that hard? Actually no. All actions are done through skill checks and spells. Basically just roll a d100, add your skill modifier and a difficulty assigned by gamemaster, see the table №... Well, “see the table №” is not crunchy per se but just slows down the gameplay (outside battles it's actually simple, the result >110 is a success and finer distinctions in the result are not always needed). Thankfully for the player, the book suggests that it is gamemaster's task to tell the player which modifiers to apply. Good luck to poor GM... So, in my opinion it's not worse than older D&D editions with their THAC0, more tables but usually more intuitive. Exceptions are Resistance Rolls and combat initiative system which is confusing at first.

Another story is generating a character and leveling-up. A lot of things need to be recalculated, thankfully in our time electronic spreadsheets exist to aid with character sheets. 

The rules

Different modules spent hundred of pages on describing local population, ecology and climate and converting it all into tables... But the core rules are focused on combat. As I already described just roll, add your skill modifier, see the table for the result. The attack tables list all required modifiers, so you don't need to flip the pages. But how does the Stealth works? Someone else was asking the same question in the Iron Crown's 1990s magazine. No, nothing in the tables. Attacking or running are described in the “8. Actions” section, some other actions in the chapter “14. Adventures & Activities in the Strategic Environment”; Actions section has an example of Hiding from the sample adventure but it contradicts the actual rules... Well, it was in the brief “5.4. Skills” subsection of character sheet explanation (why didn't I look there first? – because everything else is described in details later! except Swimming, it was also there). And why falling from the cliff is only in the monster's attack table? Conspiracy theory: some things were left vague on purpose to drive people to buy numerous RoleMaster books (a big brother system by the same publisher).

I'd also complain about monsters/enemies stats – they are very brief: just artificial level, hitpoints, speed, attack and defense skills bonuses and attack type. Full character page would take too much space but it would be nice if the attributes were provided (Strength, Agility, etc.) or at least a bonus for such absolutely crucial skill as Perception (actually, I only missed that one stat).

I saw jokes on something like character not being able to tie a shoelace because they forgot to take  Shoe-Lacing or Rope-Mastery skill. But actual rules say: no rolls required for trivial actions like that.

The rules themselves are not bad, but the structure of the rules was truly a bane of MERP and RoleMaster...

What is good is that MERP (and Rolemaster) is a modular system, many rules are optional, and the books make an emphasis on the flow of the game over the rules. Characters are also very flexible if the player is not aiming for minmaxing. Some mechanics missing? (e.g. Intimidation or Taunt) – Just invent a new skill! (But most probably it was already done in one of the numerous Rolemaster's Companion books). Tired of getting stunned? – Just take non-standard Stunned Maneuvering skill next time!

The modules

1st and 2nd edition had almost 100 book published combined (many were reprints though). Some books were describing lore and regions, some were adventures. Internal black & white art by Liz Danforth is gorgeous (but not by Edward Johnson) and of course colored covers by Angus McBride and maps by Pete Fenlon as well!

From my point of view, the majority of adventures were targeted at more experienced game masters: the setting and surrounding history were described thoroughly (sometimes too much) but almost nothing about NPCs reactions on players' actions (and yes, I know the players will do something unexpected anyway). Not a big issue for small location, but some adventures assume that players must participate in the clash of armies of hundreds or even thousands (imagine Frodo and Sam trying to sneak right through the Black Gate while Aragorn attacks it and failing a stealth check amidst a horde of Orcs) and no rules for big conflicts resolution. Another problem: the core rules have a cap at level 10, but many adventures suggest higher level characters to begin with (30-level BBEG could be easily defeated by a clever 10-level party of 6, but what if I had only 3 players?) – but developer's answer for this particular issue was to use Rolemaster for high levels despite contradicting the balance of power.

2nd edition reprints corrected some issues of earlier books but tables may still contain references to removed characters.

Tolkien's spirit

The game was often criticized for being not in the spirit of The Lord Of The Rings, almost in every review I saw. But is it so?

Magic is accessible to any profession if the character is smart enough, at least to a small degree. But most of the spells are not that strong or are versions of the same spell or are more similar to class abilities in D&D. Too many evil guys in published modules were magic-users... (I agree with the critics on this point).

Well, Mage's spells with fireballs and stuff were just copied from RoleMaster, D&D and probably RuneQuest. But nothing forbids the GM to forbid Mage class for the players. I left it in my game to balance small party size. In my opinion the Bard profession is perfect for roleplaying as Tolkienesque spellcaster (however, people say it's terrible for min/maxing and munchkinism). 

Another point of criticism is the lack of epicness and the lack of references to familiar characters. The same criticism was applied e.g. to "The War of the Rohirrim" anime, which I consider the least of its problems. I would answer with Gandalf's words from the Peter Jackson's movie (yeah, not the books, and contradicts book's Gandalf, but yet):

It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay.

or quote from one of the MERP modules:

The ceaseless battle between Light and Darkness has made no less an impact on the multitudes forgotten in the histories, especially those inhabiting the frontiers. Even in centuries otherwise considered peaceful or quiet, humble folk fight against evil. Yet their unremembered struggle is no less desperate, no less final for those who fall in the myriad little skirmishes, and perhaps, no less important in the eyes of the One.

And “Palantir Quest” campaign is epic! quite loose with the lore though...

The grimness of the setting was criticized less, yet people were just expecting playing LOTR without reading the chronicles in the Appendices A and B. Yeah, the main timeframe is in the years soon after the Great Plague that devastated the Middle-Earth while the kingdoms of Eriador were falling apart in the wars against the Witch-King of Angmar and between themselves – pretty grim, but this is a part of Middle-Earth history too. Jokes on game's deadliness were more often (TPK while playing with a kitten is much possible).

Creators were bold enough to introduce regions and cultures which were mentioned like in one line of text, or even not at all, but for me it is not an issue. Other people found elements contradicting the lore in some adventures about more familiar elves and such, and I agree with them (I can hardly imagine a corrupted Avar Elf, but a Sinda turned to evil is definitely a big no-no). But such discrepancies are rare and could be modified out by GM.

Is it still worth trying?

It has the same problems as D&D like encouraging combat over actual role-playing or leaving a lot to GM's discretion.

If you are into actual role-playing – probably no. If you want to play old-school deadly dungeon-crawling table-top game which tries to be more realistic/simulationistic, or wrote a survival-horror adventure in the Middle-Earth setting, or came from CRPG and do not mind roll-playing... it could be fun!

It seems many people adapt it's critical tables into other systems for laughs, which I would also do. My players enjoyed the criticals too despite of their deadliness.

As a side note, I think MERP or it's big brother RoleMaster would make a good system for CRPG (computer role-playing game), not too dissimilar to what Pillars of Eternity use (which I wouldn't play tabletop as is).

What to use instead?

Besides D&D... as it was said, original publisher's answer was to use their RoleMaster system. The current iteration – RoleMaster Unified – is much better structured, more clearly phrased book than previous editions but is still too crunchy and bloated for my taste. 

Many people suggest “Against the Darkmaster” (often inconsistently abbreviated VsD) as a successor to MERP (it's basically it's retro-clone), but after my short glance at the book I didn't find solutions to MERP's problems except the copyright and the possibility to use VTTs: some things are clarified and simplified, but some became more complicated, rules are still focused on fighting, and it still looks like a corpse of 1980s era game with band-aid applied. I can practice necromancy without buying a new product.

The One Ring™ by Free League Publishing (previously by Cubicle 7) seems to be a great. It's mechanics are closely tied to the setting, but they would benefit from larger tables which are problematic to gather even online, and it is a very different game, with much more modern approach, however I wouldn't call it rules-light. But as many people bought MERP books just for the art and lore, TOR is great for this too.

Surprisingly, I see another product by Iron Crown in a role of simplified RoleMaster: HARP (High Adventure Role Playing), I liked what I saw, however didn't play it yet, but looking forward to it (too bad, this system is also very much dead). Oh, and another overlooked game is also Iron Crown's “Lord of The Rings Adventure Game” (LOR), simple, beautiful and targeted at beginner's like me (actually at much younger ones), but unfortunately died of small sales and copyright issues (and was probably too much dependent on published ready-to-go adventures).

But honestly, our table moved to playing mostly Chaosium's game not related to Middle-Earth...

MERP™, Middle-Earth Role Playing™, were registered trade marks by Iron Crown Enterprises Inc, under the (lost) license from Tolkien Enterprises.